Fan Bingbing channels Elizabeth Taylor; Li Bingbing doesn't get married

Our favorite Bingbings haven't been making movies recently but have kept busy in front of still cameras for fashion pubs.

Fan Bingbing covers a few decades with a retro 1960s/1980s vibe (leaving out the psychedelic 70s) for "L'OFFICIEL" reminding one of a more willowy Elizabeth Taylor.

Elizabeth Taylor

Li Bingbing got languorous and dewey-eyed to help the bridal issue of Cosmo jump off the newsstand shelves:

China Entertainment News; Sina

Esquire has Li Bingbing in muted color, glorious black and white

The early drumbeats of hype for "Transformers 4" have begun so we can expect lots of LBB articles. Since "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" made US$177.3 million at the Chinese box office, she is the first of several Chinese actors expected to be cast. Sina describes her character as the "chief women scientists in Seattle" although since this is a Michael Bay explosion extravaganza she may be playing a Gila monster herder in the Kalahari by the time it hits the theaters next year. Li Bingbing in thigh-high boots, lingerie and leopard skin, posing with stacks of worn luggage and outmoded electronics:

Sina; Daily Chili

Li Bingbing and Chen Man in fanciful movie images

Chen Man and Li Bingbing got together again with "Harper's Bazaar" picking up the tab and getting a striking set of images that pay homage to Hollywood. LBB was an action heroine, an Audrey Hepburn/Natalie Wood temptress and as Michelle Pfieffer as the mysterious Countess Olenska--with, perhaps, Chow Yun Fat at his oleaginous best as Newland Archer.  Not much to say other than here they are:

Sina

The Bingbings go to a party

Fan Bingbing and Li Bingbing took their teeny handbags and glam party dresses to the Vanity Fair after-Oscar bash. While realizing that the evening bags are props/ads, there is still very little room for much of anything in them--perhaps a compact for last minute touch-ups, a subway token to make sure one can get home if she has to ditch her date and a poison tipped dagger if trouble arises.

For those interested, FBB's dress was from Joe's Custom Awning while LBB wore a suit from Bat-Wings R Us.

Each shows that she knows how to hit her mark and smile for the camera:

  

Yahoo China  Chinese Films

Li Bingbing and Yao Chen on the "Southern Weekend" censorship controversy

Things seem to be heating up in Guangzhou around heavy handed local government meddling in the editorial policies of "Southern Weekend" as pickets, demonstrations and a possible strike at the paper show that the journalists have support in the community. Among those who have made their voices heard are Li Bingbing and Yao Chen, with 50 million weibo followers between them. Yao quoted Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: "One word of truth outweighs the whole world", while Li was poetic with "Hoping for a spring in this harsh winter."

China Digital Times has a good running compilation of the dispute.

Not Li Bingbing:

Li Bingbing:

Not Yao Chen:

Yao Chen:

New York Times; The Guardian

49th Golden Horse Awards--Kwai Lun-mei, LBB, Lin Chi-ling...

Kwai Lun-mei was named Best Actress at the 49th Golden Horse awards held Saturday, breaking an otherwise clean sweep by artists from Hong Kong and the PRC.

Jackie Chan and Li Bingbing presented the award. LBB's dress looked beyond conservative and almost too dull although it was a great color.

Kwai Lun-mei looked pretty amped at winning for her role in GF*BF:

And seemed to not quite believe it as she exited--this is also where we see that Li Bingbing's dress wasn't quite as conservative as it looked from the front.

Backstage

With Lau Ching-wan who won Best Actor for Life Without Principle:

Qi Xi with her trophy for Best New Actress for Mystery:

Liang Jing won Best Supporting Actress award for Design of Death:

Lin Chi-ling almost stole the show and dominated the coverage in much of the Chinese entertainment press--Sina ran a story with 67 pictures of her in this dress. It was designed by Versace and possibly constructed by Taiwanese engineers that build cantilever bridges:

All the "netizens" were suitably outraged at her when she mimed a kiss with Huang Bo before presenting the Best Picture award:

Denise Ho and Mavis Fan were in the audience and on the red carpet. Denise Ho, who recently, to the surprise of no one at all, came out as a lesbian had a real "don't mess with me" look:

Mavis Fan looked great--and pretty tough herself--in her tattoos and little black dress:

Sina; Xinhua; Yahoo SingaporeChinese Films

Li Bingbing and Michelle Reis cut ribbons

Li Bingbing was in Taipei for the 49th Golden Horse Awards and dropped in to help open the new Gucci flagship store while she was in town.

She watched and applauded as an imported craftsman hammered out her initials on a luggage tag...

Nice work, bro!

There was also a huge, oddly colored leather bag with her monogram (Latin alphabet, of course) that looked too large to be practical for much of anything.

Gucci gets its money's worth with a snip of the banner...

And its time for a quick glass of Champagne.

Meanwhile Michelle Reis was in Hong Kong doing the honors for super-luxury French jeweler Boucheron, draped in emeralds and looking flawlessly beautiful.

Helping with the heavy lifting...

Making quite an entrance (or exit, it doesn't really matter in this case)

Meeting the press.

Sina; Zimbio

Sina; HK Daily News

Li Bingbing in two photoshoots

Li Bingbing looking typically glamorous for Citta Bella, the Malaysian magazine with the Italian name that translates into "Beautiful City" in English and something very close to that in French and Spanish.

A more or less neutral but still telling description of a dress with a slit skirt is that "it was slit up to there", with a slight emphasis on the last word, indicating a possibly too revealing look. In this shot the photographer redefined "there":

The de rigueur LBB face scrunched shot which few photo essays that feature her are without:

A slightly edgier and very well done editorial in Southern Weekly, a magazine that the "Danwei Media Guide" damns with the faintest praise saying that it "is no longer as irrelevant as it once was".

They even include an unscrunched close-up!

Sina; Sina; Danwei